CHAPTER XI. 
WILD GEESE. 
Wild geese—Abundant in the West—Very destructive to winter crops 
—Large numbers poisoned annually—How geese are poisoned in 
China—Number of species of geese in the United States and Can- 
ada—The system of goose shooting practised in the West—A re- 
trieving mule—Earnings of market hunters—Blinds—Wounded 
decoys—The proper color of the clethes—Ice blinds—Men on 
horseback—Haunts of geese—Fire-hunting—Large numbers shot— 
The ‘‘ goose season ’—Migrations—Seldom alight in woods—Fly 
low in windy, rainy, and murky weather—Sailing to geese—Punt- 
guns tabooed by gentlemen—Sneak-boats, sneak-boxes and de- 
coys—General sketches of the white-fronted or laughing goose, 
‘the snow goose, the horned wavy, the emperor, or painted goose, 
the blue goose, or bald-headed brant, the black brant and its ya- 
rieties, and the Canada goose and its varieties—How to distin- 
guish geese from swans and ducks—A suggestion for pursuing 
wild animals—A thousand geese killed in a week—Drunken geese 
and pot-hunters—Stalking geese under cover of a horse—Geese 
and guns—Professional wild-fowlers and their “rigs ’—Sink- 
boxes—Staking out decoys—Value of a good ‘ caller ”—Bringing 
down wild birds—A swimmer and his duties—A day in a sneak- 
box—A ducking in a lake—The shady side of sport. 
Wild geese are more abundant in the West in autumn, 
and the South-west in winter, than in any other portion 
of the Continent, for they move in such vast flocks that 
they might be appropriately compared to a snow storm. 
Their presence is not an unmixed blessing, however, es- 
pecially to farmers, as they often destroy large crops of 
winter cereals, and are so destructive in other ways that 
a relentless war is waged against them, every means of 
destruction, from shooting to poisoning, being employed 
to lessen their numbers. They have been known to eat 
up a third of the winter wheat in some of the regions 
adjoining the Missouri River; and in California they 
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